Recommended Books from Young Years Library: Mother's Guide to Children's Reading by Rachele Thomas, Parents' Magazine's Press, 1963. {LOC 63-15865}
Young Years Library was a five or 10-volume anthology of reading material for children. The product evolved over the years, but generally it was sold direct to parents who wanted to provide an educational or literary advantage to their children. Many of the great children's librarians of the day were involved, including the pioneering Augusta Braxton Baxter. My copy, published in 1963, includes a 72-page list of recommended books for various ages and stages. To my eye, many of these books have long since been forgotten, not least because of the revolution in children's literature that took place following the publication that year of Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. I'll be transcribing the sections of the Mother's Guide to Children's Reading reading list, one by one, in hopes of providing a starting point for modern mamas looking to explore more unusual, likely out-of-print book suggestions, beyond those usually included in generally available contemporary reading prescriptions. Copyright, of course, remains with Home Library Press.
NATURE AND SCIENCE BOOKS
Plants and Animals
All About Dinosaurs. Random.
A wealth of information about dinosaurs
and how modern scientists learn about these reptiles that have been
extinct.
All about Eggs and How They Change into Animals, illustrated by Helen Ludwig. W.R.
Scott.
Good introduction to the facts about
how life begins.
All Around You, by Jeanne Bendick, illustrated by the author. Whittlesley.
A good how-and-why nature book for the
very young.
The difference between alligators and
crocodiles, where they live and how they get their food.
Bits That Grow Big: Where Plants Come From, by Irma E. Webber, illustrated by the author. W.R. Scott.
The facts—simply stated—about
seeds, their growth, and how animals and people depend on plants for
food.
Cottontail Rabbit, by Elizabeth and Charles Schwartz, illustrated by Charles Schwartz. Holiday.
Interesting story of the role a
cottontail rabbit plays in nature's food-supplying life cycle.
Egg to Chick, by Millicent E. Selsam.
International Publishers.
What happens to the egg from the time
it is laid to the breaking of the shell and the emergence of the
chick.
Frogs and Polliwogs, by Dorothy Childs Hogner, illustrated by Nils Hogner. Crowell.
What a frog is and how it develops from
a polliwog, including information on toads and salamanders.
Gives an understanding of these two
important insects and thereby provides basic knowledge of life
processes.
The Insect World, by John Pallister,
illustrated by Sylvia Slayton. Home Library.
A fine introduction to entomology.
Among the many full-color drawings of insects, there is a section
showing insects in various phases of activities—feeding, fighting,
mating, etc.
Let's Go Outdoors, by Harriet E. Huntington, illustrated by Prentiss Duncan. Doubleday.
A fine introduction to the tiny
creatures that live outdoors. Other titles in this series are:
Let's Go to the Brook
Let's Go to the Brook
Let's Go to the Seashore
Nature Detective, by Millicent E. Selsam, illustrated by Theresa Sherman. Scott.
Stories of animals, the tracks they
make in snow and wet sand, and what the nature detective can find out
from animal tracks.
Intriguing experiments with plants
which lead to a good understanding of natural phenomena.
See for Yourself, by Nancy Larrick,
illustrated by Frank Jupo. Dutton.
Explains how to do many simple
experiments with air and water.
A fine portrayal of the structure and
life of many kinds of spiders.
The Tall Grass Zoo, by Winifred and Cecil Lubell. Rand McNally.
Describes the many animals a child may
find in the vicinity of his own home.
Tiger, by Roger McClung, illustrated by
the author. Morrow.
The fascinating process of a
caterpillar emerging from his egg, growing becoming a chrysalid, and
finally appearing as a beautiful full-grown swallowtail butterfly. A
companion volume:
Luna: The Story of a Moth
. Scott.
The fascinating methods plants use to
scatter their seeds far and wide.
A practical guide to collecting
fresh-and-salt-water animals.
White Wilderness, by Robert Louvain and
the Staff of the Walt Disney Studio. Golden.
Animals of the Arctic presented in
words and photographs.
Wonders of Nature, by Jane Werner Watson. Simon & Schuster.
A simple guide book to the world of
nature.
The World of Dinosaurs, by Edwin H.
Colbert, illustrated by George Geygan. Home Library.
An introduction to prehistoric animals,
beautifully illustrated with paintings that recreate the environment
and animals of that age.
Archeology
A simple, concise introduction to the
science of archeology.
Oceanography
The True Book of Oceans, by Katherine
Carter. Childrens.
An explanation of simple terms of many
of the ocean's phenomena.
Wonders of the Living Sea, by Carlton Rey, illustrated by Oscar Liebman and full-color underwater
photographs by the author and other specialists. Home Library.
An introduction to marine biology and
oceanography.
Meteorology
Hurricanes and Twisters, by Robert Irving, illustrated by Ruth Adler, and with photographs. Knopf.
Where the most destructive storms come
from, how they arise, and what they are capable of doing.
Weather and Climate, by Julius London,
illustrated by George Geygan.
An excellent introduction to meteorology, with very practical information on weather and weather forecasting.
An excellent introduction to meteorology, with very practical information on weather and weather forecasting.
Science Experiments, Electricity,
Chemistry, the Atom
How to use magnets for fun and
magnetism, with many magnet tricks, and a simple, clear discussion of
electricity and magnetism.
Experiments with Electricity, by Nelson
F. Beeler and Franklyn M. Branley, illustrated by A.W. Revell.
Crowell.
Describes intriguing experiments and
gives their scientific explanations.
Answers the question: “What is
electricity?” and discusses its uses.
Fun With Chemistry, by Mae and Ira
Freedman. Random.
Interesting experiments—all safe—that
illustrate the basic principles of chemistry.
A fascinating study in relative size.
How science crops up everywhere, with
illustrative experiments that children can perform.
Presents a clear understanding of a
basic principle of physics.
What are atoms? How do they form
compounds? How is atomic energy used to generate electricity and run
engines? These questions are answered simply and directly.
A fine introduction to what goes on in
the skies and what lives on the earth, with simple experiments that
children can carry out.
Easy-to-perform experiments dealing
with magnetism, gravity, sound and other physical phenomena.
Astronomy, Space Travel
A Book of Moon Rockets for You, by Franklyn M. Branley, illustrated by L. Kessler. Crowell.
An exciting description of how men will
explore the moon.
An accurate explanation of satellites,
how messages are sent from them back to earth, and what we hope to
learn from these far-reaching messages.
How man will travel in space, the
clothes he will wear, how we will build a space station and explore
other planets.
Find the Constellations, by H.A. Rey.
Houghton.
With this excellent star-gazing guide,
the whole sky is transformed into one mighty picture book.
The Golden Book of Astronomy, by Rose Wyler and Gerald Ames, illustrated by John Polgreen. Golden.
The facts about the moon, stars, and
planets in a big-book format.
Guide to Outer Space, by Franklyn M.
Branley, illustrated by George Geygan. Home Library.
A beautiful book that can be a real
help to a child's understanding of the new science frontier.
A clear, informative handbook on
astronomy.
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